This invention relates generally to fluid injection into plants and more particularly to a technique for injecting a fluid into plants and vegetation through the cut portions thereof as the plants or vegetation are being cut.
It is frequently necessary to get fluids into the intravascular fluid distribution system (i.e., xylem and phloem) of plants or vegetation in order for the fluid to affect the plant or vegetation in the desired way. Such fluids commonly include disinfecting solutions, growth regulators, fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides. The use of such fluids are common in the horticultural and landscape industries. Typically, such fluids are applied to the surfaces of the roots and vegetation of the plants by spraying or dousing. One exemplary application is the spraying of road right of ways with growth inhibitor. This application commonly is performed as a separate spraying operation after the right of ways have been cut. By reducing growth rates, it decreases the required frequency of cutting; however, separate spraying operations such as this are both expensive and environmentally hazardous.
Because one essential requirement of most spraying and dousing applications is the entry of the applied fluids into the interior vascular fluid distribution systems of the targeted plants and vegetation, this fluid entry requirement, in turn, often determines required quantities of chemical solutions applied by such methods. The unintended adverse environment impacts of the large quantities of toxic chemicals which are required to satisfy this fluid entry requirement already have resulted in restrictive legislation in some states concerning practices in the horticultural and landscape industries.
These and other problems and disadvantages associated with the prior art are overcome by the invention disclosed herein by providing a fluid injection technique and apparatus which injects the treatment fluid directly into the vascular system in a plant as an incident of the cutting of the plant""s roots, stem or leaves so that the treatment fluid does not have to reach the plant""s vascular system by absorption or other transfer mechanisms through the plant""s cell walls. The method of the invention includes generating a pool of treatment fluid along the cutting element of a cutting implement; adding treatment fluid to the pool to maintain the pool of treatment fluid on the cutting element; and, while the pool is maintained, cutting the plant with the cutting element so that the cut in the plant is in communication with the pool of treatment fluid at all times during the cutting. Under these conditions, the plant draws treatment fluid at the exact instant of cutting from the pool on the cutting element directly into its vascular system. The sequence of causation for this result is as follows:
1) as the plant is cut, the tension within the fluid which already fills the plant""s vascular system is released;
2) this release of tension, in turn, causes the vascular fluid to pull back instantaneously from the cut surface of the plant;
3) treatment fluid on the cutting element which is in contact with the cut surface of the plant is drawn by the receding vascular fluid into the cut ends of the plant""s vascular system.
As a consequence, the treatment fluid can migrate directly through the plant""s vascular system without having to enter the vascular system through the plant""s cell walls. This results not only in a marked saving of the treatment fluid, usually in the order of 85-99%, but also does not get any of the treatment fluid any place other than on the surface of the cut and into the vascular system of the plant. Consequently, the environmental hazards normally associated with spraying are virtually eliminated.
The apparatus of the invention includes a distributor which distributes the treatment fluid on the cutting element of the cutting implement to maintain a thin continuous fluid coating on the cutting element at all times. A solution supply assembly supplies the treatment fluid to the distributor at a controlled rate so that the desired thickness continuous coating is maintained on the cutting element of the cutting implement. The solution supply assembly may supply any of the treatment solutions enumerated above. The supply assembly is typically located above or on top of the cutting implement so that any treatment fluid from the supply assembly will flow under the influence of gravity through the distributor to the cutting element on the cutting implement. A flow regulator means is used to regulate the flow of the treatment fluid from the supply assembly. The supply assembly is removably connected to the distributor for easy replacement when empty while the distributor remains mounted on the cutting implement.
These and other features and advantages of the invention will become more clearly understood upon consideration of the following detailed description and accompanying drawings wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views and in which: